Bloodlust: The Six Slayers
by firesenshi
Summary: D is on a bounty mission to rescue the son of a lord, taken by a coven of vampires, the Six, who are out to kill a legendary vampire assassin. Entangled into their trail of finding the vampire nemesis, he finds a young woman with extraordinary powers.
1. Prologue

Thirteenth of the month. 

_They were really fanatics who counted well._ D looked up to see that the moon was as the shining orb they predicted, its light blotched with haze. Still, it was the moon on a clear sky and it was the only light they allowed to illuminate the old, forgotten castle where they promised to meet. 

The old castle was even stuff of old medieval legends. Its old walls were made of quarry stones that already gave way before good mortar that would stick them together would even be invented. D held on to the little crevices that surrounded the walls of the narrow and slippery path that he climbed. It was on the top floor. His plae white hands drew sharp contrast to the murky bricks stained with moss. However, his boots were not as durable as to cling itself on the soft path.

"Careful! Don't you ever watch where you're going?" Hand complained when he slipped. 

The pointed ceiling of the upper floor and the stained glass windows were reminiscent of Gothic architecture. The top floor was more legendary than the unwelcoming and God-forsaken entrances that he took, it was almost worth it to be there. _Almost_. Upon opening the heavy wooden door, D was greeted with a musky stench made by the old velvet that lined the walls. Or was it because of that old man who stood there? A man whose limbs were too thin that both would fit into D's own hand. The light that came from the windows shone only on what was prominent -- that is, the sharp angles shaped by his skull which is wide forehead and cheekbones, prominent only because of one's thinness. It was only when he lifted his chin that D saw the grotesque white in his eyes. 

"You came." He said simply.

That was when he heard footsteps from the dark. Some were light and fast. One was huge and paced with slow rhythm. And yet, they expected someone else who would not come from either direction. 

D looked up to hear the familiar sound that followed him as he climbed through the ruined path. It was the same cadence of quick and furious beats of legs that scaled through the wall. And now, it is scaling along the stained glass windows and everyone who was there could see the dark shadow of a figure with all four of its limbs stretched out to hug onto its vertical support. And in that instant, he smashed the entire window with its body, making a good landing on level ground right now. Still standing on its four limbs like a human spider, except it had abundant mass of black hair on all its limbs. The sound of its hiss made Hand gasp and D could feel him shiver.

"What is the problem?" He heard a hoarse voice ask. "Too dark? Need a light?"

And true enough, the one who spoke was most helpful for he made his body combust in flames, and was selfless enough not to consider his own pain in doing so, seeing that the inner strands of his muscles were visible from being burnt that bad. There was no hair left to burn in any part at all nor was it necessary to wear any kind of clothing. What he did wear was his a smile so sinister because of a miracle that all his teeth were still intact. 

_One. Two. Three. Four._ There still lacked one more. And it was actually that one who he wished to see. 

"He is not coming," the woman, with flowing hair the color of dark moss spoke. She was the most normal looking creature out of all of them. And even the thin, vertical pupil of her emerald colored eyes made her look more alluring as a human instead of like a cat. "He is... inspecting various matters. He is not one to be bothered."

D purposely ignored the remark like it was never spoken. One. Two. Three. Four. They all stared at him like he was an outsider. Someone who is never fit to be in their circle. He nodded to acknowledge what seemed to appear as their unified gaze of disapproval, and flipped his coat to turn the other way. Back to that God-forsaken tunnel he arduously climbed. 

"At least report your progress!" The fiery torch asked, his flames more ablaze with his temper. 

"Do you... have any progress?" D returned the question without looking back. 

There was no answer. 

"Maybe _he_ has." 

No one in that circle took the God-forsaken, slippery path except for the dunpeal.

****************************

"Do you think it's wise to make them mad, D? They're j-just... they're just very powerful."

But he had ignored all of Hand's apprehensions, including walking under the afternoon sun for almost four hours, simply relying on his tightly covered black costume to shield himself from all its danger. He actually wanted the convenience of being able to see everything so clearly apart from that hazy full moon episode. The One he wanted was not there to see him and only sent the rest of his dismal entourage to find out his supposed progress. Despite their leader not being there, was not it clear to them that he always worked alone? Save for that Parasite in his hand, of course.

And there he found it. The estate of the Castans now looked like a sprawling desert, and only had a few remnants of the plantations that once stood during its grandeur. The huge watchtower had a creaking ladder that was never replaced since the day it was built, but they still continued the tradition of stationing a guard with a cheap, usable rifle on it. One more on the balcony overlooking the garden entrance and two who stood at the receiving area of its chief resident. The guards only let him inside after giving him a fierce look and that would be enough because they knew he could never be touched.

"So you are the bounty hunter." It was the chief, the one they called Lord Nicholas, who sat in his mechanical wheelchair, his dirty black hair porous from a cheap dye job and even the white hair of his age showed on his moustache.

D did not nod nor say any kind of greeting despite the title owed by the man in front of him. And Lord Nicholas understood immediately. He waved his hand for the earlier instruction and one of his men placed a heavy bag of gold pieces at D's feet. It was not obvious to his men, but the dunpeal could see the old lord's wrinkled brow where his moustache failed to hide his grin. That would be the only time the bounty hunter bowed down in front of this lord, when he reached for the payment that was due him.

"This is not what we agreed on," D protested impassively, easily judging from the weight that he carried.

The old lord pressed a button on his wheelchair to rotate his wheels to make a full turn in order to avoid his view. "I am sorry," he apologized. "But I do not have enough."

"What we had agreed on was 700 gold pieces."

"700 gold pieces?!" The old man shouted, coughing from the effort he just exerted. "You have not done anything! Where is my son?"

"This is what we have agreed on. 700 pieces for the first and if I find him--"

"700 pieces is too much. I have only to doubt your reputation and then I would not use your services."

"That is not a problem." He said, dropping the bag that contained deficient funds for his services. "I shall be on my way."

"Wait!" The lord called out, almost climbing out of his steel wheelchair in order to stop him. He waved his hand for another earlier instruction to call for the other attendant to come out and get the faulty bag from the floor, while carrying another one on his arm. Lord Nicholas closed his eyes in frustration, rubbed his temples with his wrinkly fingers and hesitantly said, "This is all I have. Please bring back my son... and heir."

And as his attendant handed the bags of gold to him, D continued to state his contract. "And if I find that he has changed, I have to--"

"He won't." Nicholas protested, banging his hand on the armrest. "Make sure he does not."

"I-I... cannot guarantee that."

Lord Nicholas sighed, waved his hand this time at the bounty hunter he had hired to bade him go. But he was already beyond the front door even before the nobleman's instruction, with the two bags of gold safely tucked by his left arm. He walked slowly towards the garage where his horse waited because it was already late afternoon, and the sun was not as harsh. 

And it was also because he had heard the sound of light footsteps following him. "Monsieur D," it said. "Can _you_ really save my brother?"

"Like I told your father, I cannot--"

But even before he could finish his statement, a strong flash of light blinded him for a moment, leaving him paralyzed for seconds of blindness. He could make out a small figure of her who stood her, in little blotches of gray. A small slender figure whose voice did not sound meek for a woman at all. 

"I was hoping that you could bring this with you. Please, Monsieur D?" The darkness was lifted, and it was just as fitting to reveal what he thought was a gothic angel, dressed in a fitting robe of white satin. Her hair was the darkest cinnamon and the red afternoon sky revealed that it had hints of purple, like the eerie comeliness of her eyes. "It's quite effective, isn't it?"

"What is effective?" He was careful not to stare directly at her eyes because the last beautiful one he saw was the vampire enslaved for bloodlust. And she was as alluringly dangerous despite constant assurances of not having any kind of attraction. 

"This," she said, pointing to a box she was holding. "It blinds all kinds of creatures -- animals, humans, vampires.... shall I demonstrate it again?" She asked, placing her middle finger on the lid.

"No," he said, placing his hand on hers. She looked straight at him, her dark purple eyes already thanking him and guiltily, he snagged the box from her grasp and hid it with the baggage along with the gold pieces on his horse. 

"I want to be... of great help to you," she said sheepishly. 

He only continued to arrange the baggage on his horse.

"My brother is the heir to this estate... He is very important to us. And I know that matter is of no consequence to you, but... "

He looked back at her, his left foot ready to mount his horse.

"... My brother is still up North. Just a few miles from this estate. You will see an old railway station. The... vampire ... who is keeping him is still there. I don't know if he is still alive. I just know of the one who keeps him."

He kicked his horse a little to pick up the pace he wanted. It was not his practice to listen to rumors. Nor was at his practice to look back and see its source. But when he did, he saw that she was not standing there anymore.

****************************

"So... you're listening to that girl, aren't you, D?" Hand taunted, laughing. "She's quite a looker, isn't she?"

He squeezed the Hand with his fingers. Proceeding on a hunch, surely this was not like him. And she was wrong. From the looks of it, it was not an old railway station. There was simply one or two abandoned lodges out there with no sign of any presence. No sound of any retreat from hearing his steps too. 

"Hand," D instructed. "Can you sense anything?"

"No," it coughed from the suffocation of his palm. "Nothing. Fine. Fine. So that beautiful old witch is wrong. Sue me."

"What?"

"I said, 'Nothing.' I don't find anything out here!"

"No... about her.. what did you say?"

They heard an eerie moan. It was definitely coming from the cabin. As they got closer and closer, the sound was no longer muffled to make out the words. _Help... help me... I am inside...._

As he was to kick off the cabin, the door immediately burst open. His horse neighed in surprise. A young man ran frantically, his clothes in tatters and his blonde hair cut off in horrendous fashion that there were huge spots of bloody wounds still fresh and open on his head. D could see the horror from which he ran off. He stood on the roof of the cabin like the strangely familiar figure he saw -- as it stood there looming over him on all fours.

"Help!! Help me!!!" The man shouted. "He's a lord!! My father!! He is a lord of this town!!"

"D! Watch out!" Hand shouted.

The spider creature stretched out of its limbs, and he had succesfully dodged its attack by jumping off of his horse. The horse neighed frantically in horror, as the strength of the creature thumped on the cabin's roof, knocking down its weak foundations. And still on its fours, it jumped down to where the dunpeal had landed, as if it forgot that this was once the ally he had met that night on the full moon. 

D struggled to get back on his feet. He lay there, leaning on his elbows, as his sight tried to search for the one he had tried to rescue from an assailant he had never meant to kill. The spider creature still loomed in front of him, swaying on all its fours as a warning for him not to rise up and take its prey. 

"Help me!!!" The young Castan heir continued to shout, at a loss of where to run to, and losing his balance in the process. 

It was at that moment that the dunpeal took the opportunity to lever himself up, to grab his sword and lunge at the one barring his way. But the creature was too quick and fast that it jumped quickly to one side, kicking on his horse, and successfully attaining a perfect landing almost behind him. And though he was quick to respond, D noticed the small silver box that was his present to help him in this mission. The box lay conveniently nearer at the foot of the creature and seeing that the dunpeal was not anymore an ally at this point, his worried gaze on the box before him was a warning he took. 

D tried his best to avert his eyes once the creature pushed its limbs to strike the box towards his direction. He only heard the faint cries of help by the young heir asking for his father moving farther and farther away. It was still a good long moment before the darkness evolved into gray sights. He knelt on his knees in desperation, his other hand leaning on the ground for support. And it was only then that his hand felt the cold rusted metal, hidden underneath all the dried up mud. 

When his eyes finally saw the colors of the dark night, he looked down and edged the mud off from its secret treasure. 

They were railroad tracks. 

  
****************************

The old man tried his best to hide his astonishment. "You meant to say that..." he coughed. "You found my son."

D nodded. "I have."

"So he has not changed? Will you bring him back."

"Only upon the assurance of payment with our deal."

"What?" Old Nicholas coughed as soon as he shouted again. "I do not have anymore money save for this estate! I cannot give you another 700 gold pieces!"

No answer.

"Please... will you be heartless? Haven't you ever had a son? This is my heir! And a vampire has taken him!"

Still no answer.

"Well.." the old man began, tears welling up in his eyes. "Will you ... take... 300 gold pieces?"

The bounty hunter still did not answer. He turned his back on the old lord and knew the place where the exit was.

"Please, sir... That is all I have...." 

He stopped walking. "Would you be willing to give me anything in exchange for your son?"

The old man nodded. "Yes... yes.... take all my gold. Take all the 300 pieces that I have left. Leave us to starve. Take it."

"There is... something else... that I would want to take."

D turned to see the old lord's forehead was crinkled in the smile of happiness he concealed. And he could clearly see that he bore no likeness whatsoever. 


	2. 01 The First

**The First.**

_Has it been said who will bring harm or who will not?_

There was no such vampiric prophecy. At least not the news that even the vampire king would not be aware of. Or maybe he was not aware because he himself fell inlove with a human, and produced a dunpeal.

_But our kind has its own history. And we could dwell on that example._

In the twelfth century, it has been said that the alchemists were the science of that time. And everyone thought they were good mystics, as opposed to the red-haired legends with their familiars, who danced naked under the full moon. Maybe the latter part was all a myth save for the part that they were one of the most beautiful beguiling human beings unlike the rogue vampires. And there was one, who could sense who cannot walk during the day and sought out blood at night. It was during her time that she exhibited a great amount of power, not even the legendary ones can stop her. She killed all those she knew and did discriminate in saving one. Just the one.

_So we specifically counted the days from that time. _

And we know that the day draw nears that the same mortal would rise again to harm those of our kind. We will find her... trace her bloodline. And we will send the Six to her... 

  
****************************

He was actually quite surprised to see the cause of his failed mission, and the loss of his bounty prize, sitting on his horse, smiling happily when she saw him walk towards it. 

"I am very happy that you took my advice, Monsieur D," she told him excitedly. "The news that you have found my brother --"

"I lost your brother." He reminded her impassionately, roughly placing the silver box she gave the other day on her hand. "Do not open it. There might still be some of that nuisance in there."

_Nuisance?_ "You mean it did not help?"

He looked strangely at her, and his intimidating glance threw her aback for a moment. 

"I guess not," she said, sighing. "Oh well... I really thought he was there. Maybe it was the wrong chant...."

"I suggest you do not dabble in those, Aurora, and just help your father organize your estate."

"How did you know my name?" she gasped, remembering that she had not introduced herself properly to the kind bounty hunter.

He bowed his head low, his chin almost resting on his chest, trying hard to conceal his embarassment. "Your... father... told me."

"Oh."

"H-how... did you know where your brother was?"

"You mean I was correct?"

He nodded.

"I-I... I..." she said hesitantly. "I cannot say." Her voice trailed. "My father ... is against all sorts of modern alchemy. And I have stopped doing that... until my brother disappeared."

"Modern alchemy?"

"I really do not know what it is called, but... please do not tell my father."

He turned to fix the sadle on his horse. It was not his business to keep secrets. 

"The one who took my brother... is still near...." she said. "I can sense that he is... but now, I just don't know where. Please take care of yourself." With that, she put on her dark gray hood, and walked out of his sight.

****************************

D followed the railroad tracks that he had unearthed from where he once had been. He now verified that what she had told him was no rumor. But it was no psychic phenomenon like the first one. It seemed she was just one who knew how vampires moved, and if one such vampire, no matter that such a creature stood on his fours was as brilliant, he would never move far when he had someone to keep. He was determined to keep such a bounty because the stakes are higher now, for the old lord Nicholas at least. 

The old lord laughed crazily at first, as if he was drunk, feigning fear and surprise. "Are you serious with your proposal?" the lord asked him for the third time. 

And he only felt he should. Hand protested at what appeared to be an insane proposal. His host was already tied up with a heavier commitment prior to this mission, which he took only because of the huge bounty.

"What? What are you doing?" Hand protested. "We are still here! Didn't that girl say that he is near?"

He was ignored. D continued to follow the almost untraceable rail tracks, looking for the smell of blood. The scent he was looking for was still too familiar with him because if there was one foolish thing that spider creature did, it was to taste blood from the young heir. It is easier to track down the scent of humans than their monster captors, because the latter had a mix of everything they fed on. 

The scent was nearer and nearer, until the dunpeal had reached what remained of the railroad tracks. There was a small cabin on that end, what looks like the remains of its depot. The sound of the durable door hinge creaking by and by, being pushed by the wind. A sign that someone was inside. 

He haplessly lay on the floor, his beaten back leaning against the worn-out counter. There were claw marks all over his body and fresh wounds still lay open on his raw flesh. It was the same man who cried for his father for he could be easily recognized for what remained of his golden hair. A huge round wound remained on his crown, as if someone had enough strength to pull that much skin from his scalp. And despite the bleeding, the rapid flow of blood coursing down his chest, D could hear him struggle to breathe. 

"Kramer." 

He exhaled when he heard his name, trying to show life by moving his fingers. 

"Your father has sent me." There was a tinge of regret in D's voice.

It was as if the word "father" triggered the impetus in him. The young heir leapt from his position in an instant and jumped on the dunpeal, with such a force that it threw even the stronger one back. There was blood running down his cheeks and the pupils of his eyes were transfixed in agony and dementia. _Was this the lord's son?_ It would be doubtful that his father would still recognize him. He clung to D's coat like the mad monster his captor was, breathing heavily from the torture. 

"My father! My father!" he shouted, showing D the bloody hand with two digits missing. "He has done nothing to save me!"

D was moved with disgust. His smell, his wounds, his blood... these were all marks of the creature. He quickly forced him out of his grasp with his elbow, pushing the ailing creature against the wall, and drew his sword with the other hand. The golden-haired monster writhed in pain as his back hit the hard wood, and cried in such an eerie tone. 

"My sister! My sister!" he chanted this time. "It was not me they wanted. They will fear her so much to desire to kill her!" And with that, D was sure that this was already a changed fledgling, tortured by the creature, as it was told to do. The little that remained of the young heir's sanity was the thought of his sister, as he repeatedly shouted to save her. 

_Save her?_

This monster opened his mouth to show the fangs that grew on his bite. Filled with thirst for D's blood and aiming to take his savior's beating heart to satiate it. And in doing so, the part of him that was rational made him run into D's own sword, just in time for it to sever his head from the tortured body he wanted to part with since the day he was taken.

The head of the young Castan rolled on the floor, marking a trail of blood from where he once stood. There were tears that remained in his eyes, mixed with the blood on his cheeks. D could not forget the expression, because the head seemed to smile at him in gratitude. 

_Save her?_ That was the brother's last plea.   
He could see the image clearly in his head. She is lying in bed, her slender figure draped only with blankets. The light of the pale moon shining from her window, lighting her wan face. Of course, how can demons appear to be sinisterly repulsive when they can be fashioned to be sleeping like angels? 

"Aurora!" D anxiously realized, as he got up on his horse, beating it to run fast towards the Castan estate.

  
****************************

  
She was sure she had heard gunshots coming from the gardens. She hastily got up and put on the white camisole that hung on the drawer and covered herself with the thin robe. There was no time to waste. The gunshots continued to fire, surprising her as she ran. A quick glance at her open window and she could see that the guard posted on the balcony hung lifeless on the railing. 

_It's impossible. The bounty hunter could not have failed._

Dashing down the stairs, she reached her father's study in a matter of minutes. But there was no trace of him sleeping in his favorite chair, drunk from finishing all the prized wines in their cellar. Broken pieces of glass lay on the floor, wet with brandy. Tobacco sitting on the table, white smoke emanating as though it was just lighted. 

Her father was in the receiving area, leaning on the large table there for support, and his weak legs shaking from fear and nausea. He was not the patriarch who looked calm under a crisis. Every sound of bullets being fired alarmed him greatly as he cowered in fear on that corner. When at last, the reverberation of the gunshots were over, it was only then the old man stopped shivering. Aurora could hear her own heart beating fast. The silence only scared her instead of assured her. She looked up towards the ceiling where she recognized the guard that stood by the doors, his neck hanging on the noose. 

"Father?" she called out, walking closer to reach for him.

Old Nicholas laughed, softly at first then modulating to that of a maniac, his shoulders shaking. "This is... your fault..." 

"Father... we must go--"

"This is your fault!" the old man shouted, turning his face at her, his nostrils flared in great anger. "If it wasn't for you, they would not take my son. They would not have come here."

"Father, we must--"

"They should have come for you," he said, grinning in fear. "You are cursed!"

She reeled in shock. Speechless. The old lord Castan looked at her with fury and disdain, and laughing at her with such maniacal laughter. 

Then it appeared. From where and from what height, she did not know, but it jumped in front of them with such an impact that tiles from the already broken floor flew. Its thick coat of hair stood on end as if in excitement as it swayed like a spider, getting ready to catch the prey on its trap. Its red eyes took one good look at her, as if saying, _I will destroy you_. 

But instead of reaching for her, its elongated black limbs were stretched towards her father, ready to impale his skull. And maybe it was adrenalin that surged within her, she really did not know at this time. It was some sort of fire that burned inside her body, desiring more than ever to release itself towards the creature. And it did not miss because the creature was thrown against the wall, hurt by an emerald surge of energy that came... from within her.

"Father!" she called and immediately rushed to his side. 

The old man was shivering. He fell sitting on the ground from the impact. "W-w..what was that?" he asked, terrified.

"That was..." 

The creature immediately recovered from the brunt. It stood on its four limbs once again, its red eyes directed at her this time, vowing that it, too, would not miss. _What right does he have to be angry?_ They were the ones who took her brother. They were the ones who destroyed their home and the ones who attacked. The flame inside her rose and this time, it was anger.

So leaving her father, she walked towards the creature amidst his cries to halt and protect him. And she released the emerald flame from her hands and it hit the assailant with such massive force that it cried in pain. Still, it persisted, rotating its flexible body to turn its rear towards her and with a speed she has never seen before, scaled up the wall till she could not follow where she went. It had already leapt from where it was when she knew it. And she now found herself looking face to face with the creature, her body underneath his elongated limbs and its fangs drooling stench on her chest. 

Her father screamed in fear. But she closed her eyes. And waited.

There was no sound from the creature shrieking in victory or crying in pain. It was the sound of the flesh tearing and blood spurting out of a segmented body. She saw her assailant's diagonal wound, bright red with blood, and its body parted from there to reveal its nemesis. He stood there, his face immaculately white, his eyes pierced in calm resentment, almost emotionless. And he stood gripping the silver sword with both hands. 

She exhaled all her fears for awhile, as she sat there all drenched in the blood of the assailant and the blood of all that it dranked. "D..." she whispered.

The silence was only broken with the old man's snicker. "I suppose... you only came back to seek your payment?" 

D returned the sword in his scabbard and said, "Of course."

Nicholas laughed, louder and more demented this time. "And wh-where? Where is my son?"

D lowered his head and did not answer.

"Y-you...." he continued to laugh hysterically. "You did not have my son! You have failed!"

No answer. The dunpeal clutched the round bag that hung from his belt, wet and sticky. He reached for the contents inside and threw it at his employer. There was a sharp thud when it fell and since it was still fresh, a trail of blood still made its mark on the floor when it rolled. 

Aurora gasped, and when she didn't cry in fear, this time she cried in grief. 

The old lord ceased to laugh. He wiped the tears of blood that stained the cheeks of his son's severed head, and felt his torn eyelids with his fingers. But he was too fatigued to sob. 

"He has changed," said the dunpeal. And that was the only time the father noticed the sharp fangs that were visible from his locked jaw.

"Are you alright, F-father?" she asked, her hand reaching to touch him. 

But she was unable to. He never bothered to look up. His eyes were looking straight at what remained of his heir. Never making a sound. And she was being pulled by the bounty hunter that was hired. The dunpeal tugged at her right arm, dragging her from the slippery pool of blood where she still sat. 

"Father!" she cried, as she was being pulled away from him. 

And that was the last scene from her home -- the image of her father kneeling down, staring blankly at the severed head of the brother they tried to find. As if the grotesque scene remained frozen, becoming smaller and smaller as she moved farther and farther away from it.


	3. 02 The Dawn

**The Dawn.**

  
"I'm thirsty."

D pulled the reins of his horse to stop. The sky was turning a pale blue because it was almost morning. She had trudged for the past few hours by his horse and she now stopped there, on her knees in fatigue, panting for hair. She was in such a pitiful sight, as her whole body still reeked of the sour smell of human blood. Stains all over her white camisole and her hair was sticky and brittle. 

It was not his fault. She defiantly insisted not to be touched. 

"I am thirsty," she repeated, gasping. 

He looked back at her seemingly without any feeling of sympathy. He felt that these kinds of daughters would not admit that they needed it. Besides, she did not know him enough to know that this kind of look was already an invitation for her to stop being stubborn and accept his help. "There is a town near here," he began, pointing to his North. 

"How far?"

"About five more kilometers," he answered without looking back. 

He could hear her exhale. "I shall walk then."

"Very well."

"You made me leave my father, you damned bastard!" she shouted helplessly.

He kicked his horse with his heel. It neighed and ran at its master's instruction. At least there wouldn't be anyone to slow him down. And if she wanted to just meet him there, then there would be no problem honoring her wish. 

"Err... D... D!" Hand shouted. "Is it okay just to leave her there, huh?"

He kicked the horse with his heel some more, the gallops were noisier.

"D!"

  
****************************

  
She sighed as she watched the gallops of his horse kick a dirty haze from her view, so that he disappeared in just a few moments. And when there was not even a faint sound of his sudden flight, she looked around to see if there was anyone... or anything where she was. 

It was empty. The loose dirt where she stood looked as dry and pallid as the sands in the desert. There weren't even enough trees to take refuge under. And she did not know where she was. But at least... at least... there was no one there. 

A drop fell from her eyes, stained with the blood that flowed on her cheeks. And from then on, that triggered the rest of them to fall. She wept, releasing all the angst that tormented her. She wept for her brother's death. She even wept for her father who disowned her till the very last day. And for the disability for letting the bounty hunter take her with him. Why didn't she even resist? She was too weak, too fatigued, too grief-stricken. How come he didn't even realize that?

But she is also thirsty. Her throat was dry from the stubbornness in not taking the hand of her captor to ride beside him. A kindness? The scene of her father staring at his son's severed head. That was because of the dunpeal. 

So she struggled to stand up, dusting off the dirt on her soiled knees, and proceeded to walk the ten kilometers. Which way to those ten kilometers though? Enough. She will follow whatever trail his horse left. 

And then later, there was someone there.   
Actually three of them, still enjoying the pale blue sky without the sun. Their eyes luminiscent in the dark and their teeth so pale, their fangs seemed to glisten. 

_My father is right. I am cursed_. She grinned helplessly, her knees too tired to run. And surprisingly, it never even occured to her to. Maybe she deserved all this for incurring the death of her own brother. That was the prize of the premonition she asked of him. And he said that her very existence meant the death of those around her.

The three bandits lunged to claw the clothes she wore and they successfully tore what's left of the bloodstained camisole. She tried to dodge and resist but they were fast. They were everywhere. There was nothing left of the fire that burned inside her. Nothing that she can summon from to use against all of them even though they looked weaker than the one she had fought earlier. But she did feel the sting of the tears in her eyes increasing measure per measure. For a moment, those three were taken aback for they were the only ones who could see the ethereal glow in her eyes that was as bright as the sun they feared. 

She took it as a chance to run and still, they were soon after her. The light was gone. She was wheezing in exhaustion. And thirsty. One of them lunged to claw back one last time, leaving a long red gash on her cheek. And their fangs were ready to take what they claimed as theirs. 

But they stopped hearing the sound of the gallops were becoming clearer and clearer. The bandits were filled with dread recognizing its presence and this time, they were the vulnerable prey to the vampire hunter. He swooped down on them, gutting them with his sword like the Horseman of the Apocalypse. And one he impaled. 

She watched in frail silence as more images of blood and torn garotted flesh ran amok in her sight. If the events last night had not transpired, and if she wasn't thirsty, she would've screamed of fright. It was amazing to see how all this still did not affect him, and bounty hunters like him would at least feel some sort of abhorrence from this kind of thing. Like the bandits he slaughtered, she felt fear at the mere sound of his horse's gallop. 

When he went down from his horse to retrieve his sword, he was surprised to see that she was walking towards where he stood. She held on to his cape to support his cape and made sure she looked straight into his wicked eyes when she whispered, "Bastard."

The dunpeal caught her fall after she closed her eyes, falling from a swoon. And this was the place he tried to avoid the most. If ever he looked back to see her stubbornly walking beside his horse, it was to etch that image of her wretched state in her mind. And even after doing everything to avoid looking into her eyes, here she was peacefully sleeping in her arms, ignoring the pain of the gash on her cheek. And that was the better image of her that would like to linger in his mind. 

He covered her cold, naked body with his cloak and carried her onto his horse.

  
  
****************************

  
When she woke up, it was already noon. There was a table with three plates of food and a pitcher full of water. He had chosen for her, a long ball dress that she usually did not wear on a normal day. Waking up in a fully furnished hotel, she could tell that the job of a dunpeal was that rewarding and that he was not lying when he said that there was a town near. It wasn't a dead town when looking from outside the window. It was in fact bustling with activity.

The first thing to do is get a horse to get out of this grotesque company. Then she will travel back to her father's estate. It doesn't matter that she doesn't know where it is. She can ask everyone. But for the moment, she will take a shower and remove all the blood that reminded her of last night.

  
  
****************************

  
She came out of the hotel, not wearing the clothes he chose for her. Instead, she chose to wear a black pantsuit and leather boots. The ideal clothes for riding. And he was right. She did purchase a horse with the gold pieces that her own father paid him -- the money he left for her. 

He watched her mount her horse and actually going the right direction. The witch was bright. Besides, it is not like she would lose her way just by asking around. Her father is a known figure all over these towns. 

"Oh no no, D!" Left Hand screamed in protest. "You are not going to follow her!"

But if he was right, the little witch would go back to the place where her father was and return to see her fledgling brother. Or whatever was left of him. And if he was right, there will be company seeking to meet her. The same company that took his brother -- the unpleasant ones that he was sure she would not want to meet. 

Left Hand protested the whole time he prowled on the same path she chose. "You even stayed in the sun too long!" it said. "You know what happens if you do that?"

The sun had indeed tormented the dunpeal's unusually powerful body. The mere penetration of its rays on a vampire's skin would scorch their skin. A dunpeal had more tolerance against it. However, he had been awake for the past few hours and the afternoon sun was already at its most severe.

And all he needed was a sign for him to stop. 

So he sensed a presence. The old man who he greeted him at the castle two days before. He was walking down the path. _Grunt_. His name. Wearing a blue penguin coat, his white hair hanging on the sides of his head, unaffected by the wind and dust that flew all over him as if he can shield himself from the sandstormy haze. Grunt raised his arm to trigger the steel like claws from his hands. He was nearing her. _How could she not see him?_

"Hey!! D!! What is wrong with you?" 

Quickly, he kicked his horse to gallop towards him. If he could reach him just in time, she might be able to dodge the painful assassination dealt by his claws. How he seemed so far away yet he could see that he was nearing her. The gallop of his horse almost coincided with hers. And upon reaching the path where Grunt continued to walk, D drew his sword and pointed the blade at him.

Aurora's horse rose in panic at the presence of the dark horse at its side and the rider who drew his sword at the invisible foe he was targetting. Yet she was thankful that at least, she was not the vampire hunter's target. 

"D! What is wrong with you?" Hand shouted once again. 

"W-who is that?" she asked in dread, for she knew it was not D's voice.

"A parasite!" it answered. "On his left hand. And my host is delirious!"

With that, his right hand dropped his sword, and as both horses galloped in panic, it was turn to fall into a swoon, reclining towards Aurora's side. Her gentle horse still stricken with alarm, burst into top speed ahead of his better steed so that she was not able to catch him. There was nothing to break his fall and the sharp rocks might be there to break his back if the horse had not stopped to drag its master. 

At first thought, Aurora was tempted to leave him for now he was useless. She knew the way to her father's estate and leaving a dunpeal here, when images of him throwing the head of her own brother like a worthless toy still ran in her mind. And besides, bounty hunters like him are made of steel and could manage it. _Or could they?_

Then it was out of guilt that she went back to go see what she could do before she could leave him. At least they could be even for the kindness of him saving her life from the creature. She almost forgot that he... saved her life. 

She held the reins of his horse to halt it and went to the place where the dunpeal lay, all stretched out, motionless despite the hard fall he took. She reached for his left hand because it was the one who pleaded for her favor. Upon seeing the misshapen hand reveal a monstrous face in it, she gasped in shock. 

"You speak?" she asked, after regaining her composure.

"Yes," it answered. "He is a dunpeal--"

"--I know."

"You have to dig a hole and bury him on the ground! He was too exposed to the sun!"

She raised his heavy unconscious body by supporting his right arm on her shoulder, careful not to use the left or else the face of that loquacious parasite would be looking straight at her. She had a hard time dragging his body because he was especially heavier than she was. 

It probably took an hour or two, and the sun's heat had already subsided to give way to the late afternoon when she found a small enclave in the trees to dig the hole where she put him in. It will be another night soon. She found herself less in a hurry as she scrubbed the earth to bury almost all of his body. 

He still looked the same way as when he was awake -- impassionate, pale, strong. She brushed a tendril that fell over his eyelids with her dirt-filled nails. And it was then that she realized that vampires can be unlike the monsters who plagued the lives of those surrounding her. That some of these bloodseekers have a ghostly beauty, especially when they slept. 

She wondered why he had lacked the malevolent gaze those of his kind did not have. She brushed her fingers on the toned crevice on his chest, caressing the blue orb pendant he wore. 

"He is stubborn, isn't he?" 

"You have no idea," was the parasite's willful answer.

"There are... a lot of things I want to do to him...." she said with a jeer.


	4. 03 The Second

**The Second**

In the dunpeal's dream, it was dark as always because he rarely hunted during the day. In this dream was his sun -- the round orb that lit the empty sky that was the full moon. So when he saw her standing there basking naked under it, he was compelled to approach her with caution. It was not usual for human beings to do that. He was sure she was like him. But her back was turned against him so he was not sure. He would call her name. 

Her long straight hair reached down to her buttocks and the wind made sure to blow it off her cold skin to hide anymore details he could see from that distance. And the moon's yellowish hue only made her more mystifying... because her dark hair shone all the more crimson. Just like blood.

He awoke with that same moon, the cold earth freshly rejuvenating his body. He dug himself out of the loose earth that was poured upon him and crept out of the enclave where he slept. 

"D... you're awake--"

He tucked his palm with his fingers to prevent the Parasite from speaking. He guessed by the moon's distance in the sky that it was midnight had just begun and therefore, whoever rescued him was still around, exhausted and sleeping. She should not be awakened. And he was right. 

She did not even lie far from him. Using the saddle of her horse as her pillow, she lay on top of the roots of the great tree with her knees bent and her fists clenched to fend for the cold. Her haltered pantsuit was not enough to shield her from such an emergency. It is amazing to see someone so graceful even when they slept. That is probably part of the training they receive when they're royalty.

_I wonder if 'he' has received the visions as well_. 

Good thing that the girl was clever as she was spoiled. She tied both horses about thirty paces away from her with a knot so secure that even D had trouble untying it. _Maybe she must've been raised in the stables as well._ No matter. For now, he only wanted to loosen one knot. So after finishing this feat, he slapped the horse's rear to signal it to leave.

It didn't. The white horse looked straight at him as though it easily recognized that his _true_ master would not be as cruel to him. 

"D! What are you doing?!" He had forgotten that he had unleashed the mouth of the Parasite on his Left Hand.

The horse screamed at the sound so the dunpeal immediately tugged at the reins on its mouth and let his Left Hand forcefully slap the steed once again. 

Aurora leapt at the sound of the hooves fiercely stomping farther and farther away from the ground that she slept on. Her eyes quickly glimpsed at the place where she remembered she had tied both of them. And there was only the dunpeal untying his _own_ horse, looking as if he was on his way to mount it and her own beast was panicking as it ran through a maze of trees farther and farther where she was. She hastened to stand up that instant and ran a few paces before she realized that she could not catch up with it on foot, even as it would not be that far yet without being lost among the trees.

"Aren't you going to run after it?" she asked him angrily. "I will have no way of getting out of here this time!" 

He pulled the rein on his own horse and moved it on the clear path. After he mounted his horse, that was the only time he looked at her, still worriedly glancing at the path her own horse took on its first day of freedom. He reached his right hand towards her.

"Of course not!" she grimaced at his offer. 

"Suit yourself," he apathetically replied and gently tugged at the reins of his horse to motion it to move.

And then there was that obvious dilemma: to run after her new unreliable steed with no apparent sense of direction seeing that at this moment, it was still trapped in the maze where she was, or to go after that bastard dunpeal. The thoughts of her walking by his side, thirsty and seemingly willing bait for the vampires he hunted, was the possibility she had feared the most. Yet, if she was stubborn as she was always was, she can always try to escape into the next town as was before. Whatever it was, she should think about it quickly as it would not be long before both choices are out of her sight. 

"Wait!" she called, running towards his leisurely running steed. "Wait! I said, 'Wait!' you bastard!"

That was the only time the dunpeal forcefully pulled the reins of his horse to stop. He did not offer his hand this time. He knew she would be stubborn enough to decline it and simply jump on the back of his horse on her own... which she did. And after that, he quickly stomped on the horse's side to order it to run faster ... towards the opposite direction that the white horse took.

Aurora was amazed at the speed the dunpeal took that she was too afraid to look back. Back at the place where she slept. Back at the place where her horse ran off. And back to the path that routed back to her father's estate. The dunpeal surely knew his way around this forest for he did not push at a sluggish pace after that. That affirmed that he was indeed a better rider than she was... of course... or anyone in the estate. 

And that was the one thing that he did not expect. His horse was not used to have two riders. Nor was he. He could feel her dirt-filled fingernails firmly scratch his stomach as she held tightly to his waist. And his senses were very much attuned to the littlest elements of human beings like her -- the trigger in a vampire's instinct when they have to hunt. The sensation of her fingers. Her lithe form. Her smell. The scent of her blood. He wondered of it -- the thirst inside him spurned in him so quick that it astonished him for it was the first time he was not in control of that thirst. But if she would not part from him and that horse, he knew that it would madly consume him, because at that moment, all he wanted was a _taste_ of _her_ blood. 

Without deliberating further, he tugged the reins of the horse to shift its swift movement back towards the other direction. The horse furiously screamed at the sudden command and rose on its hind legs to protest before it did so, inflicting all the more torture on its riders since she clasped onto his waist to ensure that she would not fall. 

Even though she could not see where her horse was at this distance nor understand the dunpeal's actions, she felt she was in no place to protest. He was clearly concentrated in taking that same path and his maddened senses enabled him to see another blood benefactor ... that was her beast now running swiftly on a clear path it found. 

She braced herself all the more on the dunpeal, even foolishly biting his cape to ensure that she would not escape his grasp as the suicide chase continued. It was then that she saw that he was actually on the trail of the white horse that escaped. A last minute effort to actually help her? What is this stupid game that vampires play? 

That horse was easy to catch. He was able to reach for the reins immediately and his forceful hand easily made both steeds stop. When they did, he quickly climbed down from his horse and much to her surprise, pulled her down of his own black steed and placing her on top of her own horse. Sitting side saddle when he placed her, she furiously held on to the reins as she adjusted to ride normally. It was not a time to ask. Her dark purple eyes simply glowered at his indecision. 

"If you're going to follow me, beat that horse twice as much or you will slow me down," he breathed heavily after he instructed her. 

Aurora sensed a dozen curses that her mind dared her to speak for an answer. _Follow you?_ She clenched her first and made an ineffectual effort to beat her heels on her exhausted steed. 

"If you are going back to the estate, that is not the way," he said after noticing her turn the reins on the path her horse has run off to. "You might end up going back to Talo."

She noticed that the dunpeal has moved the same direction where she rode with him just seconds ago. The opposite direction that her presumably obtuse and sluggish horse chose. He was moving slower than usual despite the fact that there was one less rider. A thousand curses and a struggle for weariness burdened her side as she watched him continue that same kind of mockery. She pulled the rein on her stubborn steed and tugged towards the path that he took. 

And actually hoping that she would catch up to him.

*******************************************************

The old man walked slowly inside the barren villa. The musky smell of rotting bodies even seemed to permeate the moss-lined walls. There was one who hung above him, the noose around his neck still securely tied on the stair post above. Scratches on his clothes and his left eye missing. He could recognize the one who tore through this one's flesh. 

"Arbus...." 

And that was him who lay there, his body torn in half and his insides sprawled on the floor over his own dried blood. 

He walked a little closer to get a better glimpse of the other who possessively holds his comrade's victim's severed head. That one sat there on his old mechanical wheelchair, the sounds of its motor still wheezing. His eyeballs have been gouged out though the old man swore there were still fresh tears streaming down his cheeks. The blood that soaked the collars of his white robe can be sourced to the dagger that was thrust on his neck. Self-inflicted. He lay there with his mouth open in horrific stasis. 

"She would come back for him," the old man smiled, ticking the handle of the dagger. "And the _dunpeal_ too."

No sooner than he had finished saying, that the doors creaked to reveal its new visitors. The first one who entered was the dunpeal who saw no one. 

D did not pursue farther to step into the scene where the ominous events began for him. Thanks to her, his senses were more than attuned to everything else. Especially that of acknowledging those like him. His right hand reached for the sword that was on his back and tried to listen for any small movement. He raised his left hand to signal for the one behind him to halt. 

"Father!!!" the imprudent daughter roared as she ran towards the place where her father sprawled on his mechanical wheelchair. His son's head remained on his lap, gore intact, as its tomblike eyes stared into open space. 

D watched her move closer to her father, at first taken aback at the morbid sight of what's left of them together. She cried softly, touching her brother's brittle hair and caressed her father's hand. As soon as she tried to reach and touch for the old lord's cheek, she screamed in shock as a huge rat burrowed itself out of his used skull. The sight of its filthy red eyes looking straight at her claiming her father's body as its own silenced all strength to wail in grief. She stepped away slowly, covering her mouth with her hand, as warm tears fell on her cheeks.

The dunpeal found the scene as expectedly repugnant as is the work of those he swore to hunt -- scenes which she still could not comprehend as of now. He pulled her arm to get her away from the sight but she was heavier than usual. And shivering. He stood in front of her, held her shoulders with both hands and shook her. Her purple eyes, glassy with tears, finally fixed their gaze on him, so lucid and free of fear at that instant that it seemed eerie even to him. 

"What is it?" she calmly asked. 

"Your father's safe," he answered after a long pause. "Where is it?"

That was when he felt what had followed him as soon as he entered that broken-down estate. And she had seen it first for she did not answer his question and instead look behind his shoulder at the culprit who held one eyeball in his hand. D did not have to look back to know that it was the one who called himself Grunt.

Immediately, the dunpeal threw Aurora down to the floor, covering her body with his, as the old vampire tore through the air with his claws, missing his cape by an inch. He jumped, carrying her in his arms like a flimsy doll, he threw her to a corner he thought safe and she rolled after she fell on the concrete with a large thud, her legs hitting the floor. 

"What have you found, vampire prince?" 

He somersaulted in the air to dodge another strong invisible attack. 

"Why is it that you have betrayed the Six? Killing that clairvoyant when he already knew the key...."

The dunpeal gasped as he dodged another attempt to slash his arm that his invisible assailant again missed by an inch. He crouched on his side then instantly leapt at the moment he felt another of its blows coming at him. 

"I never trusted you in the first place! You... who hunted our blood brothers and killed them!"

This time, he leaned on his knees as gashes striked his arm stroke his arm. He tried to listen closely to the sounds of his assailant's wanderings, but could not hear any step or see any flicker of his appearance. Now he knew what _they _were talking about when they said that the Second's gift was Illusion. He knew that if he paid attention to even the littlest of this One's actions, he would surely beat it. Just a little perseverance. 

And yet the problem was that D did not know how the Second even performed one action....

_"There is a pattern."_

The dunpeal found himself in the same Castan villa where the walls were blurry gray, as if motion was constantly moving at great speed where light could not even reach it yet someone had managed to freeze it. In the midst of that colorless stasis, there remained Nicholas's daughter standing there in her luminous black pantsuit with her dark hair normally being swept by the wind underneath her. Her purple eyes had turned to shining emerald light and her lips were moving to chant words he could not understand. 

She pointed to the One slightly perpendicular above him -- a ghastly old man with eyebags that nearly fell to his mouth and his white brittle hair blown away in sluggish second motion, as his right hand stretched back to ready his claws to pounce on the dunpeal. 

_And time has returned_ when D successfully moved out of the assailant's way, this time avoiding its attack by a huge margin of distance that he had heard it groan in anger. But when he looked up with the walls in clear colored vision, his attacker could not be found again. He readied his sword for its next attack.

_The walls were again cold gray and blurry._

And he could see Aurora in the middle of its circular turmoil once again, chanting. The assailant was again above him perpendicular to his right this time now smiling in expectation as its target has his back turned and was sure to overcome him. He clasped his fingers on his Left Hand to silence the frightened Parasite. 

_And when time returned_, it groaned louder in disappointment as it missed the dunpeal by a wider margin and puzzled at its own mistake. 

_A blur that time has stopped. _ And it was in his north north west elevation. 

And then at his south eastern elevation. 

And only now levelled with him on the floor. 

And by the time the one named Grunt realized that the dunpeal had already mastered his art of illusion was the time he coughed blood from the impaling of his target's silver sword. It knelt down on the concrete floors, spewing more blood out of its mouth before it finally showed its proud fangs and smiled. 

"You had always wanted the death of your own kind, didn't you?" the Second said. That was the only time it felt the pain of the pressure that was thrust to take his life. He groaned in excruciating pain as the dunpeal raised his sword to ensure a vampire's true demise by slashing its head from its body. It rolled on the concrete dripping a line of dark crimson as it finally halted by Aurora's feet. 

She immediately sidestepped to dodge the creepy face, still with a sinister smile, below her and looked back at D. "There," she pointed to the clock behind her father's corpse. "My father's safe."

He put the sword in its sheath and went to her. He immediately dragged her towards the clock that she had pointed as a guarantee that she would not run. Much to his surprise, she remained weak and unchallenged, however and she even turned the knob of the safe to the combination that she knew. He actually thought it would be rather easy to simply slash it open with his sword but did not wish to interrupt that one moment where she was cooperative. 

Returning to the stables where the horses were tied, the dunpeal placed the three bags full of goldpieces that old Nicholas said he never had for fear of starving, on the white horse's back. He only placed one bag on his own horse for the practical purpose of not slowing it down should he need to, and for the main purpose that this would mean there was no excuse not to keep watch over his stubborn companion. All his important belongings were on that white horse. 

"What do you need all these gold for?"

"What was that you just did?" 

They both asked at the same time as they rode back on the same path towards the dark forest where she had half-buried him. She bit her red lips and fidgeted the horse's ropes with her blood-stained fingernails to signify that it was his turn to answer _her _question _first_. 

He looked straight on the path as he held on to the horse's bridle. "You don't think we can survive this journey by just picking wild berries to live on, do you?" His sarcasm shocked her. 

She pouted. It was her turn to answer. "That... was what my father was afraid of," she said. 

D turned back to give her an inquisitive look. She gazed at him in uncertainty but she had no choice except to tell her captor everything. 

"It's a chant," she continued. "One that I have not learned until now but begging for me to speak it."

"A chant? D! That's --"

The dunpeal clasped his fingers on his tactless Hand again to forbid it from speaking. He continued to have his horse walk slowly on the path as he held on to the bridle of the horse that she rode on. While she had not heard the dunpeal speak in order to strike a conversation, she knew that this silence meant a deeper contemplation. She was rather fearful of it. Fearful of her brother's premonition. Saddened by her father's angst over her strange abilities. At least she would tell him and there would be one other person spared. 

"My brother has predicted that I would cause misfortune to all around me," she worriedly told him. "If you let me go now, it wouldn't be too late."

_"Your son may have been changed by now," D said. "If he did, I would have to--"_

_"Stop talking like that! FInd him! Find him first at all costs!" old Nicholas spoke angrily, trying to stand by leaning on his mechanical wheelchair. _

_"But if he has changed--"_

_"Do what you have to do! You keep repeating that damned phrase!" he shouted. "What must I give you to do what you are contracted to do?"_

_D turned his back and began to walk towards the exit. _

_"Wait!" Nicholas shouted. "I know I have not yet completed my part of the bargain but I can give you anything later on! Anything you want! Even this estate! Just please... get me back my son." He began weeping. _

_D stopped walking and after a long pause to hear the old man wail, he said, "Your daughter."_

_"Aurora?" _

_Aurora. The dunpeal repeated in his thoughts, finally knowing the witch's name. "Yes. Your daughter," D answered. _

_Old Nicholas's weeping instantly turned into hysterical laughter. "You want her? That unlucky burden of a child?" he laughed. "It's like offering to take off the pebble in my shoe!"_

_D shook his head and continued walking. _

_"W-wait!" The old man appealed. "Take her! Take her now if you want to! If she is enough!" He pressed the button of his mechanical wheelchair to move closer to the bounty hunter. "A grateful solution," he said bowing. "Still leaving me with enough money so we would not starve! A very very grateful solution!" He started weeping again. _

_"Very well, it is settled," D replied, disgusted. He pulled the cape that the old lord tugged as pretense for his gratitude and left. _

"If you let me go now, it wouldn't be too late!" 

The dunpeal halted both horses and pulled the bridle of the white horse closer to look at her straight in the eye. Her purple eyes could not mask the fear as he stared coldly at her, and she did not know that her comely demeanor caused the thirst in him to awaken again. But he could not stop but be entranced by her vulnerability. 

"Your father is dead," he reminded her. "Do you still want to go back to all that?" 

_No..._ But before she could answer, he striked his heel on his own horse that sent both steeds furiously speeding on that path leaving the old lord's estate to be forsaken forever.

.......  
**Little note: **Sorry for the grammar errors in the past chapters. Will try to fix them one of these days. I usually write this when I'm in need in that bad, gloomy mood and when I take caffeine. *_* D helps. I love him. This is still an experimental fic. Hopefully, I get around to finishing the rest of the chapters until the other Six arrive. Thank you for all the reviews! 


	5. 04 The Third and the Fourth

**The Third and the Fourth**

"How long was it since I've known you?"

No answer.

"I mean...." she sighed, trying to grab the reins except he was quick to take seize control from it. "How long are you torturing myself with my company?"

"Four... maybe five months?" It was the Parasite's enthused voice who answered in his host's behalf.

She looked angrily back at him, her face so near to his having no choice but to sit in front as they rode on his horse. His breath was cold as his very demeanor. His eyes were fixed on the road. 

"You should get me a horse," she demanded, squirming in her uneasy position. 

Still no answer. 

"I am the best rider in the fief. I could outrun your steed if you give me one that matches it," she boasted, her nose touching the bottom of his chin making him shiver. "I would be no burden to you if I would just ride on my own."

D pulled the reins to halt his horse, and said without even sighing, "Would you rather walk?"

Four months. Or five. It seemed like she was forever in his company. She looked at the long and unpolished road before her. The first day she refused to stay, three vampires unafraid of the dawn came. Two weeks later, he rode off without her and she had to run after him leaving the scent for more of his kind to follow. He had killed them in one blow. And there are similar other travels. She had lost count since the scars from those encounters would heal quickly anyway. 

And everytime she would challenge him, his face would only look at her -- strangely impassive. He never had the curiosity to ask her how he felt, yet it was him who always waited for her answer. 

"No...." she answered hesitantly. She would not be the bait for his prey again.

The horse groaned. D held on to the reins and refused to stir. Instead, he looked straight at the path and listened to the breeze that sang to the full moon. 

"Do you feel who's coming?" he whispered in her ear, tightening his grip on her waist. 

She looked around at the empty path and the trees that surrounded them. "I feel nothing..." she answered truthfully.

"How could you not?"

With that, three shadows jumped from random directions from above. He quickly removed her from his horse and shifted his entire horse's body westward to protect the place where she stood. The shadows remained black despite illumination from the moon. Their claws sprouted from their formless bodies and fangs sprang open from their chest. 

"Run towards those trees," he calmly commanded, as the shadows moved towards him. "I will go and find you."

She remained standing because of fear and not because of her usual stubbornness. 

"I promise I will go and find you."

It was only when he saw her disappear into the clearing that he turned his horse on his rushing prey. She kept on running to who knows where. There was no path to guide her that she kept bumping onto trees and getting entangled on the vines that fell. Images of her brother's soiled head seemed to morph from the huge rocks that were in that forest. Nightmares of the vampire bounty hunter who drew his nails against her frail back....

"Five... five months..." she wheezed, trying to change the images in her head into something more... recent than pleasant. 

But she could not run any longer. He promised, but he was still not there. What was taking him so long? He slew a host of vampires with a few strokes of his sword, and never a battle that lasted this long. 

The moon's light played tricks on the shadows that contrasted with the trees and turned everything in her vision into a downward spiral. Her strength was failing and her knees gave just in time for someone to catch her from that swoon. 

She smiled. It was a long time she had seen that face -- his long platinum locks that tucked behind his ears and those sharp blue eyes that shone brighter in the night looked at her as lovingly as before. And the first thing he did...

He kissed her.

"I searched through hell for you," the familiar stranger told her, gently stroking the lips he had just kissed. "Now I know where you are, I would not let you go."

She smiled at his conjecture. "I have told you before, I will always run away from you."

"And I have told you before... I will always find you." 

His lips were already caressing her own before she could answer. "I just have one question," he said, feeling her cheeks with his fingers. "Why is it so easy for you to forgive him than to forgive me?"

She could not find any good answer. The dunpeal was mild-mannered, mysterious and lethal. He proved to be every single contradiction, and there was no justification that it was torturous to stay with him. Her gifts of clairvoyance did not reveal anything about him, but something inside her was convincing enough to think that she needed him... even though he was every bit as cruel. 

"Would you...." he grinned devilishly, hearing the distant sound of the horse's hooves. "Would you like me to kill him?"

But he was gone the instant D had arrived. The dunpeal immediately jumped off from his horse and quickly ran towards her, making a mental note of the prints in the mud. 

"There was someone here, D!" his Left Hand spoke his thoughts. 

She kept wheezing when the dunpeal helped her to her feet, trying to turn her gaze away from him. But he forcefully lifted her chin and wiped the traces of saliva on her lip with his finger. 

"How do you know him?" the dunpeal asked, tightly squeezing her chin this time. 

Aurora grabbed the hand that held her and angrily released herself from his grasp. She made an effortless push at the dunpeal that only succeeded in forcing her back. And still unfazed, he made two steps to go near her until her incensed eyes shone with a luminiscent shade of green that he halted and cannot stop staring at them. Even though he knew that the rage inside here were all intended for him. 

"I...I will walk!" she answered angrily, the rage in her eyes subsiding. 

So she did, but the dunpeal carried off her in his horse where she slept leaning against his chest nevertheless. 

............................

The moss-haired woman's name is Aoifa and the leader of the Six has given her his summons. She stood before her like the alluring creature that she is, seductively poised in an emerald jumpsuit which is the same color as her cat eyes. Her arms were wrapped around her lover, with her candle-like fingers stroking his scarred burnt chest.

"What is it you want of us?" she purred, licking the remains of disfigured tissue that was once his ear. 

"I found her," said their leader, his luminous blue eyes blankly staring at them. "She is with the dunpeal."

"Are you talking about the one in the prophecy?" Aoifa's lover roared, careful not to stir himself to combust or he would hurt her. 

Their leader nodded, forming a sharp grin on the right corner of his mouth. 

"The one who would kill us all," Aoifa whispered, leaning her head on her lover's blistered shoulder. 

"The Grunt has obeyed you in finding her but he has lost his life not because of her," her lover spoke. "How can she be the one in our Prophecy? She is only human. The one who kills is immortal."

"Her brother has seen things more than she has. But it is because that is not her gift," spoke their leader. "Her true gift remains a mystery."

"Then why not kill her before she even realizes it?" screamed the human torch. "We should kill her while she is weak!"

Their leader smiles. "You are very impatient. There is only one of her and two among us who are dead." He goes to Aoifa, lightly tugs on the strand of her green hair and seductively drew his eyes closer to hers, igniting her lover's jealousy. 

"One must not be rash. She needs to be kept ... for me."

"And what of the vampire prince?" the catwoman purred. 

The leader's eyes glowed a brighter azure and his smile faded. "Him, I place in your hands," he said. 

He casually turned his back on them and walked to his own throne. 

"If you can handle him."

  
............................

There were little images of bricks that seemed to fall from the heavens... or were they moving in a leisurely swirl? 

Where was she? 

She felt the gentle slaps on her cheeks that thus proceeded to shake her shoulders. When everything had settled, her vision revealed the baleful image of the vampire hunter. His dark brown eyes stared straight into her for he leaned his forehead against her own. She let out a large gasp upon realizing who he was since one only remains frozen when she could feel his breath exhaling in fright near her mouth. 

"You are... alive..." he whispered, slowly distancing his face away from her. 

Aurora tried to compose herself, to stop her heart from beating so fast at the early sight of him. For awhile, she could not turn her gaze away from him when he stood looking so weary and confused. For someone devoid of any expression, that was the sight of him that was rare and strange. If only she can remember this face....

"This once belonged to the of the Castan lords," he said, answering her early question. 

The icy roughness of the bricks gave a sharp sensation inside her as she pressed her palms on them in order to raise herself up. The far corridor behind D was eerily familiar when a clairvoyant dreams in a palette of emerald. On the walls of that corridor are the landmarks that were promised to her the day she was to set foot on that castle. She never believed his words even if he showed her the very vision in his dreams. 

"This was the place ... where they first imprisoned him," she whispered, tears running down her warm cheeks. 

"My brother."

He nodded, reaching his hand to help her stand. "Can you tell me what he saw?" The dunpeal seemed so afraid to ask.

Weakly, she pointed to the corridor behind him and blankly stared at him with eyes glowing of jade fire. 

"They're here."

"D!!!!!" the parasite shouted as a huge pillar of fire blasted onto the place where they stood. But he was quick enough to dodge to his left and shield her from the flames. He lay face down on her on the floor, her arms tightly gripped against his own and burrowed her head in the safety of his arms. She would not like to see the scorched flesh that walks on that very castle for that creature was its keeper -- the warden of her brother's dungeon. 

"I would have loved to have a talk with the Sacred Assassin of our kind as well," a lady's voice purred. "But would you follow him and take that risk, my love?"

The warden growled, excitedly letting fire combust out of his body to consume him. "No!!!" he screamed. "We must be the ones who should survive!"

The walls were surrounded by flames leaving no exit for the dunpeal and his witch. The fire that glowed inside her eyes were not those that she summoned within her, but only the reflection of the danger that surrounded them. Those eyes remained transfixed in a trance, seeing the familiar flames that are about to consume them as the same ones that tortured her brother. She could not hear the Parasite scream because this was the exact scene her brother last sent to her, letting her look into his own eyes as though she was there the days he was tortured.

"D! Aren't you going to do something?" his Left Hand frantically pleaded. "We are surrounded by fire! You're not let us going to die, aren't you? Aren't you going to do something?!" 

He was deftly aware of the entire situation. Aoifa was standing behind her lover, poised to strike what was left of his flame victims with her deadly claws. She was sure that nothing would be left of the charred remains of the dead but she had to be sure. They were both walking slowly towards D, enjoying the moment that the flames danced around their victims, slowly eating at D's cape and the edges of Aurora's clothes. 

But even though the dunpeal remained deftly calm, he still felt the stinging sensation of the fire that surrounded him. The woman who he held in his arms was not silent because she was enduring her pain. Something inside her had sparked such that she was not able to feel anything. She could only see the vision of her brother standing in the midst of the fire, with his blood-stained head tortured by the same fiery circle, smiling at her. And she had wanted nothing else but to join him. 

He raised her chin to force herself to look at him. "Do not worry," he reassured her. "I will avenge him."

Aoifa screamed as soon as she saw the dunpeal stand up from within the fiery circle. D slowly raised his right hand to make himself ready in pulling back to draw his sword. If he can see the eyes of that human torch, D would've seen the horror in them as well. How has the castle remained intact again? There was an image of the young man he, as warden, tortured, forlornly standing in the middle of the room with his clothes in tatters and the remaining half of his blonde head that survived the fire. 

"It is not a ghost..." Aoifa's lover assured himself for fear of his vision, that he halted the flames that burned the walls. 

D was sure he had only blinked once. Maybe twice. The events seemed to happen so fast that he was sure that human torch was still standing there a few seconds ago. His fire was gone and the castle walls were back to their original ruins. How was it that all that remained standing in the icy air were him and Aoifa?

One's frightened whisper.

They both lunged at each other at the same time that the tip of his sword was scarring her neck and the edges of her claws scratched on his own. A draw. 

"Where is he?"

"Where is Aurora?"

They both asked at the same time with Aoifa snarling angrily at the dunpeal. 

"How can you betray us?" accused the catwoman. "The prophecy said that the Sacred Assassin would kill those in her path, as was before."

They both slowly pushed deep their weapons, drawing blood from each other's neck, as neither would surrender. Especially not the girl as where her lover is concerned. 

"You believe the prophecy that the Slayer will only spare one?" Aoifa asked, burrowing her claws deeper. "You cannot believe that that one is you... you are mistaken."

"D...."

It was Aurora, trying to support herself by leaning on the walls to stand when at the same time, fire ignited with a blur as the human torch appeared, down on his knees and screaming in pain. He looked up at Aurora and ordered his body to combust. Finally seeing that Aoifa was in danger, he ran towards the dunpeal and discharged fire from his hands. D rolled on his side, darting away from his enemy's flames, and immediately got on his feet to jump on the opportunity where the lovers were at their weakest. 

But as he was about to strike, the ruins around him were no longer diminished as if they were rebuilt in seconds. Darkness penetrated only by the light of a single candle. Aoifa who stood there, lovingly looking at the eyes of the same lover, who cupped her face with hands infested by burns and lesions. He stared back at her, not minding any other presence except hers because the darkness was his only comfort to be seen in less monstrosity. 

But this vision the dunpeal saw was not of the present, but of a distant time and another's memory. 

"How long do you think this darkness would last?" Aoifa whispered. "That I would see more of you."

D felt the fire pass by his side and sting his arm, almost consuming him if he did not faze himself out of the trance. Now, there was no one in that room save for him and Aoifa's lover, walking in his true disfiguration. Through all the pus and sores, he could see a very wide grin. 

"You have seen the visions as well, didn't you, traitor?" D's enemy asked, crazily grinning. "They say you can only see the image of the ancestor of the Castans, the eldest Sacred Assassin of all vampires..." 

The enemy made himself ready and ordered his body to combust.

"...when you are about to die," he continued, laughing hysterically. 

D quickly hurled his silver sword, leaving a sparkly gash on the floor. There was no hard struggle between him and his enemy, because it was easy to spot such a gleaming target. The fires continued to blaze while the dunpeal's sword was thrust into his enemy, that he had no choice but to endure the pain from his heated sword and the burns he received in his hand. 

Aoifa's scream was heard minutes later when her lover had succumbed to his defeat, unable to completely burn the dunpeal with his last ounce of strength. She ran towards her lover, loudly weeping upon seeing for herself how he had fallen. Aurora had mysteriously appeared from behind her, standing and unlocked of her own trance. She too had been slightly burnt with fragments of her clothes remaining that she wore. 

Aoifa raised her lover's head in her arms, and gently caressed his face, with her hand becoming wet from the pus that flowed. 

"How long do you think this darkness would last?" her lover whispered, trying his best to stay alive. "And then, I would see more of you."

Aoifa wept, and pressed her lips against the dry, rotting flesh of that one she loved... even though his lips remained still and lifeless. 

"Where did you draw this power?" D asked, raising his sword to her gashed neck. 

"You have killed the Grunt, did you not?" she said angrily. "You have seen for yourself how he has the power of illusion. We each have our own separate powers!"

Then she looked back at Aurora, and sobbed all the more upon seeing her. 

"It was her..." Aoifa said, gently putting down her lover's body and ran towards Aurora's direction. Sharp claws grew out of her fangs and this time it was she who felt nothing save for the salty taste of her tears down her mouth. 

The dunpeal had moved quickly to slash the catwoman with one swift blow for her back was turned. It had been necessary or else she would have touched his witch. Aoifa's vindictive gaze froze as the top half of her body fell to her legs, spilling blood on the floor from her wounded spine. 

"S-she... she wanted to die."

Aurora spoke meekly, taking a step towards the light with a line of blood across her face that spattered from D's sword. She was a pitiful sight. Her tattered garments revealed the scars he had inflicted, including the mark on her breast that had not yet healed. She had suffered no burns from D's latest enemy. Those were all his. Her purple eyes peered into his own with hate reserved for him alone. And the vampire prince could not understand how one such mortal can remain glorious despite such calamity. 

"She felt it useless to exist without him," she explained as he slowly approached her without any regard to stepping on the remains of the deceased he had just killed. 

"But it was a good and swift death," she breathed deeply. "It is a great favor to die in your hands...."

She felt him exhale as he pressed his forehead against hers, while his thumb stroked the blood off her lips. He wanted to see her eyes this close because it only forced an expression of fear. But that was better than hate. He tore off the shredded garments from her body and felt the scar on her breast. 

It was astonishing to realize that his kiss was so gentle that she did not have the power to move, nor to summon the power within her to slay him, just as he did those other vampires that were not afraid of the dawn. 

This is not D... at least this was not him. The first time he imposed everything on her, she screamed along with the morbid scream of the Parasite in his Left Hand. The scar on her breast was from the bloodlust he was not able to restrain. It was only... to keep her alive for his own purpose. 

How he acted this way, as though it was his last... is one of his mysteries. She was sure she had not yet given him the vision that she gave those two for it was not yet his time. 

The vision in the dunpeal's trance was to give him enough reason to kill both his enemies. For one would not wish to exist without the other. That was love -- one so real and terrifyingly passionate that she knew the vampire prince would not be capable of, especially not for her. There was not one who would be an enigma one second and passionate the next. There is not one more cruel than the dunpeal, who would kill her own brother and save her...who would make her the bait for his prey and then hold her in his arms and promise to avenge her. 

The contradictions that defy his actions only signify that he is not someone she could trust to be kind -- just as his the way he held her right now defied every essence of who he is. 

But if there was any consolation in giving in... it was because it would be she who would give him his vision soon. The one that would be his last.

.......  
**Little note: **Yes, I had an overdose of diluted caffeine (iced tea). -_-;;; How that works is beyond me. I'm actually quite happy so I didn't have the darky-dark attitude to create as much as I used to. But I already have the story for this done in my head so I will finish it along with my other fics. ^^;; And yes... I really think that with D's attitude, he's someone you have to love and hate at the same time. ^.^


	6. 04 The Slayer

**The Slayer**

There was the stinging sensation of the breeze on her shoulder when she awoke, lying on the dunpeal's naked chest. She listened to the slow rhythm of his heart and the rise and fall of his breath as he slept. These moments are extremely rare. These bloodseekers are definitely more beautiful than any mortal, but D is most ethereal especially when he sleeps that she enjoys seeing the times it seemed that he himself was not tormented. 

"Sshh... do you feel alright now, Aurora?" It was the Parasite's voice who whispered. 

She put her ears on the dunpeal's chest and listened. He had not moved. He used to know the moment when she is already awake in the rare times she awoke earlier than he did. And he would hold her hand and restrict almost every moment before she would make any move. But it seemed that this conditioning had worked very well that later on, he was not as suspicious knowing she would not go anywhere without his knowledge.

"Yes..." she whispered back. It was bizaare. Who would have ever thought that she would have a Left Hand Parasite for a confidant and vampire halfling for a bedfellow?

Then she felt the stinging impetus of the breeze again that drove beyond her shoulder and down the line of her bare back. Did her brother know this too? It was beckoning her to follow its force. 

"What are you doing?" the Parasite scolded her, as she rose to her feet. "You know that he will not like this!"

She looked down on the dunpeal who, despite laying on the hard brick floors on his naked back, was sleeping contentedly. It was only her guess, but it could be that this Voice has the power to penetrate his dreams and prevent her from feeling her leaving his side. 

"I will be back," she assured the Parasite, and continued walking to the corridor that had the mark of her brother's blood.

She could hear the wind whistle through the crevices of these old damp walls. There were other Castans who marked their blood on these here as well. The icy cold did not affect her even as she walked unprotected by any garment, nor did her feet feel the pain of being gashed with the sharp remains on those floors. But she still felt goose bumps all over her, feeling the overwhelming presence of her ancestors who once dwelt there, that she hugged her bare breasts with her own arms painfully requesting not to see her brother's ghost walk with her. She will only be sadder bearing the guilt of not being able to save him. 

"You will always be stronger than I am. This is why they will seek you."

Her wandering finally led her to a dead end. It was a magnificent altar that lay in what was once the old Castan lords' chapel. In the middle stood a statue in the figure of a woman, in a similar pose to the neoclassical goddesses. A quarter of her forehead was missing and most of her nails were chipped off due to age and abandonment. The pleats of the gown that wrapped around her slender body were almost amazingly intact as were the very details of her amorous face.

There was not one voice who spoke now and all of them said certain chants in unison and shifted in various tones the next. The chaos of their tunes is just too much for one to take since her spirit would only wish to listen to one -- the very Ancestor of her clan who told her that such power was awarded only to the few. It kept asking her if she can hold such power and use it to save the innocent from the slayers who sought the life essence of their bodies. 

How can these killers long for blood when one does not breathe without it? And when one breathes without purpose, why should they be the ones who must be chosen to live? This power can sense the future, can give visions of the end to the slayer and his blood brothers, and can summon the emerald fire that consumes the killers during the night as if the sun had been alive to the one who summoned it.

But then silence. A sigh of hesitation. The voices simply stopped. 

"I do not understand...." Aurora whispered, exhaling the breath that she withheld as she anticipated the final answer. 

"I have been told to save the fatalities of the vampiric line. The irony is that this power can be used only to destroy."

Someone was weeping, she did not understand why. She was suddenly surrounded by a whirlwind of mist, igniting the fire that was sleeping inside her. Her eyes glowed with an emerald flame and her mind was filled with the mantras of her ancestors that taught her which part of these bloodseekers were weakest and most useful to strike. 

"There is only one obstacle so inevitable because both species have the capacity to feel. And it is because of that, that I have spared one I should hate."

The mist has disappeared and she has seen her brother's ghost for the last time, smiling at her for his work is complete. He stood beside the goddess statue whose eyes now shone with the same emerald luminiscence that is in her own eyes. 

"Do not make the same mistake I committed."

That was the final warning to the last of their daughters. It is complete. The vampire nemesis has been awakened.

....................

D was not told that the Slayer they had expected would be within his reach. The lord's son told the Six of more horrifying visions than his Aurora. He has now seen that this old Castle did live up to its legend. He cannot contradict the semblance between the face of that statue and his own hostage. And catching her when she fell into a swoon, he realized that even as he had in his company all along the destined Slayer who would kill all including the halflings of his kind, he did not have the strength to take her life. In fact, he was more inclined to protect her now more than ever. 

She was his property. 

And even though he knew that as of today, her powers would have fully awakened, he only wished to see the image of her lying in his arms naked and helplessly shivering from the cold that she was now exposed since the mist has left her. He continued to stroke the edge of her face with his fingers and feeling the iciness in her pale lips, wanting to own this moment for as long as he could. When she opens her eyes, they will look at him pure disdain and nothing else. And even that incensed gaze of hers was nothing but intoxicating. 

But he knew that her anger was because he was the one who gave her enough reason to have that much fervor against him. His tactic was to break her spirit so as to prevent her power from awakening. But he has had nothing but fascination inside him. No one, not even the vampire prince, can resist the inevitable. 

When she woke up, she saw the afternoon sun for the first time in five months, and she was already riding side saddle in front of him, riding down a path only the dunpeal knew. 

"He is stubborn enough to continue travelling at daytime!" his Left Hand loudly complained, seeing she is awake. "I don't know what's wrong with him! I mean... I maybe a parasite, but I'm a good parasite, aren't I? Ask him to rest! We have been travelling for hours in the sun!"

"Why--?" she curiously began to ask. 

"--We have to leave... they will soon be after you," D answered quickly. 

"There are only two more left," she said. "They cannot move as fast."

"They can," he contested. 

"I can handle myself from now on... if you can give me a horse."

No answer.

"I am not your burden."

He continued to ride. He would not answer. He did not even give the usual reply of offering her to walk when faced with this same brand of stubbornness. 

And with that, she pushed herself from his grasp and jumped off from his horse. The fall was not as fatal as D managed to slow his pace as soon as he felt her resistance. He galloped to where she had fallen and lowered his hand to reach out to her. 

"Leave me!!!" she screamed, her steps taking a retreat away from him. 

He did not. Instead, he pulled the reins on his horse to make it scream at her in order to scare her from taking any further steps, which of course angered her all the more.

"I said, 'Leave Me!!!'" she furiously screamed at him again, trying to punch his horse this time. 

D pulled back the reins of his horse to calm it and slowed his pace, still moving towards her. Then his face remained emotionless as he replied.

"I can't."

And no sooner than he said that, that he fell off his horse in a swoon, trying his best to hasten his breathing in order to remain conscious. It may have come just in time. She said she needed a horse.

"Do not leave us like this!" his Left Hand implored, seeing that she had remained stationary away from him. 

If before this, she had been told that she must never leave someone who she owed her life to, it would not have mattered. As he had saved his life, so has he taken so much from her. So how should she be fair?

So she was already standing by his head, debating in her mind what she should do next. She looked down to see the bounty hunter weak and helplessly gasping for air having been weakened by the sun. 

There was a small enclave near there, perfect from hiding from the sun until the earth could rejuvenate him again and restore the night to him. She found herself scrubbing dirt once again in order to bury most of his body, leaving only his shoulders up for air. 

"I thought that he was a kind soul, just misunderstood as I was," she told the Parasite before covering the dunpeal's arm with dirt. "That was why I had a strong fondness for him from the first time I saw him."

"You too may have misunderstood." It was the first time that Parasite spoke something profound.

"This great power inside me has a voice..." she confessed. "It told me earlier that I have something that he owns, which he will forever regret."

Tears had fallen on the dirt she was moulding. 

"Why do you not wish to leave me?" she asked looking down at the dunpeal, weeping as she faithfully rubbed the earth on the dunpeal's chest. "When I hate you?" 

But as always, he had given her no answer. 

....................

D was unfortunate enough to be placed in an enclave where he could see the moon through the rustling of the trees, that he could tell that his night had begun. His first thought was to find out where she was since he had been unwilling to let her go, had it not been for his calamity of having been weakened by too much exposure to the sun. 

Then he heard sounds of coughing and vomitting, not too far off where he lay, and knew quite well that those were by his Aurora. She had done the favor of serving his weakness that he cannot help but be thankful she still had her guilt. 

"It told me that I have something that he owns, which he will forever regret." he had remembered her saying. 

He too still had his own guilt, but that was not the reason why he had stayed. 

.......  
**Little note: **I just felt writing this than my Rei-Jadeite fic. I still need more of the darky-dark feel. I guess I focused more on the story this time. I'm sorry it was boring. ;_; But I do have the full story playing in my head already and I hope to get the gory details out so I can write fun things in the Rei-Jadeite fic too. But I do love D... ^.^ 


	7. Author's Notes

**The Dawn.**

Experimental fanfic. Am not really a writer on dark/noir genres. But D is such an intriguing character. I love him!  



End file.
